Highlights from "The Return of the Screenwriters" Panel, Part 2

Lippy: You were talking about structure. And how important structure is. Do you feel you need to conform to any particular kind of three act, SydField-ish, structure or do you completely ignore that, is it somethingyou’ve read and forgot about, but you needed to have read it at somepoint to get a sense of how standard films are made?

DiCillo: I’ll answer that first. My first screenplay, “Johnny Suade“, wasinvited to the Sundance Screenwriter’s lab. There were professionalsthere from the industry and all this stuff and it was exciting to heartheir comments on my screenplay. I remember my first comment came from one of the most successful screenwriters in Hollywood at the time and hesat me down and said, “Tom, we have a big problem here. There is no plotpoint A.”

[Everyone laughs.]

Dicillo: I said, “Excuse me. What the fuck is a plot point?” It dependson what kind of movie you’re talking about. If we’re strictly talkingabout a kind of Hollywood narrative then that means there is a certainA-B-C that is going to happen. But if you’re basically working withsomething unique and truthful to you, I happen to feel a screenplay iswhat comes out, I really believe that. There are certain things you canapply that you can apply to any art form, a certain pace, a certainstructure, a certain arc, but there are other screenwriters who wouldtell you that those kinds of things don’t interest them at all. I happento feel that whatever the thing is, is moving you, put it down on paper.That’s the way I write.

Lippy: Seth, you’ve written both for yourself and for Hollywood. “Sunset Park“, for instance. Do you find yourself writing differently, writingfor expectations?

Rosenfeld: Well, when you’re writing for Hollywood, you’re being paid to do a job. You can’t help but invest yourself in it. Anything you’rewriting, because it eventually comes, that’s the only way I can write,but you know in the back of your mind that this is that kind of moviethat they’re paying you to write. When you’re writing for yourself, it’smore like Tom says, its coming from another place. But I would also say with what Tom said, if you watch his movies, they’re very well puttogether, they’re not arbitrary, they move in a certain way, so they’rereally well structured whether he knows it or not.

DiCillo: I would say there is a difference between structure and aformula.

Rosenfeld: Gotcha. I agree. I gotcha.

George: I’ve had those meetings in LA where they get into page count.Between page 35 and 40, this must happen. That’s ridiculous stuff. Butthat is what you’re going to deal with because all those people you’regoing to meet with in LA have read Syd Field. And what’s the guy whodoes the weekend…?

DiCillo: Robert McKee.

George: They’ve all gone to Robert McKee. And they all brag about having just gone. You know you’re in trouble. It’s like one of these thingswhen you’re confronted with that, even if you don’t want to deal withit, you’re going to have to confront that psychology, if you will. It’sjust one of those walls. But there is something about 3’s that’sbeautiful.

DiCillo: I agree.

Krueger: I agree.

George: Your film has it, the three act thing is there.

DiCillo: That was an accident.

Krueger: I think “Stranger Than Paradise” is one of the most classically structured films I’d ever seen. In terms of three Acts, first Act is inNew York, 2nd Act they’re in Cleveland, 3rd Act, they’re in Florida. And“Down by Law“, to a certain extent, is the same thing. New Orleans, 2ndAct, they’re in Prison, 3rd Act, they’re running through the woods. Sowhat I think is interesting about those films, like “Living in Oblivion“,is that the tension between the really classical structure and thestrange goings on woven through that. And without thinking about it,when I started writing without any intention, it became immediatelyclear that I was writing this very classical 3 Act way.

Audience Question: What is the power of the screenwriter?

George: There’s not a lot of power. It’s all relative to yourrelationship with the production entity, and the director and everybody else. On a For Hire job, if they like you and you get along with them,they won’t mind you around. They might ask your opinion on stuff. At the same time, vice versa, it can go the other way completely where they canhate your guts, the director doesn’t like you, the producer doesn’t wantto protect you and you’re not involved. And it’s all the chemistry ofthe dynamic of the people working on that project, from the studio tothe producer to the director. It’s no one way. It can happen many different ways.

Rosenfeld: I will illustrate to you two experiences. One, I wrote a play called “Servy-N-Bernice 4ever” which was bought by Columbia Pictures forme to write. It was a very personal play. So I wrote two drafts of itand the producers loved it and the studio loved it. They said theywanted to make it. And then the Heidi Fleiss scandal broke out and theexecutive in charge of my movie was dismissed.

[The audience laughs.]

This is a true story. They brought in another woman who said it was too dark and fired me the first day I got back in New York. Another examplewas I was brought in from Jersey Films to rewrite a story called “Sunset Park“. I turned the job down three times because I didn’t want to do itand then finally, they flew me out there and they made me an offer Icouldn’t refuse. And I did the job and they wanted me around all thetime. They wanted me around for production, every actor wanted to talk to me, the director, so that just illustrates Nelson’s point.

DiCillo: I’m going to ask you the question — What kind of movie do youwant to make?

Audience: That’s the problem, do you believe the lines have blurredbetween Independent and Hollywood.

DiCillo: Absolutely. Okay. The only way you’re going to maintainabsolute control over your screenplay is to do it yourself. The onlyway. I don’t care if someone is going to give you $300,000, they’regoing to want that money back. I don’t care what anyone tells you, don’t ever be surprised by anything that Hollywood does. Don’t ever be. Imean, this is a horrible story. (Gestures to Rosenfeld) Am I surprised?No. I’m not. It doesn’t end there. The independent business is exactlythe same. Okay. The only way, I say it again, for you to have completecontrol over your film is to make it yourself. Okay. Now, if you knowthat, right, and you’re going to write a script and you’re going to havea really beautiful scene and you love that scene. Rest assured, that isthe scene they’re going to tell you to cut. Okay. It doesn’t end there,it doesn’t end there. Even after you’ve directed your screenplay the way you want to do it and maybe you’ve been amazingly lucky and I’m tellingyou, it’s luck, and you’re film gets a distributor. Right? Thatdistributor is going to start talking to you like a script editor also,at this point. The journey from when you put that first word down onpaper to the film on a screen, is not a pretty journey.

[The audience laughs.]

DiCillo: It’s not. The best advice I can give to any of you, if you knowthis now, you’re better off…